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Traumatic dental injury research: on children or with children?
Ann Wallace1, Helen J Rogers1, Halla Zaitoun1
1Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Sheffield, UK.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Paediatric Dentistry
- Dental Traumatology
- Child Health Research
Background:
- Children's involvement in healthcare research is encouraged.
- Dental traumatology is a significant area in paediatric dentistry.
- Limited understanding exists regarding children's contributions to dental trauma research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the extent of children's involvement in contemporary dental trauma research.
- To evaluate the quality of published literature in paediatric dental trauma.
Main Methods:
- A systematic review of dental trauma literature from 2006-2014.
- Searches conducted on MEDLINE and Scopus databases.
- Studies assessed for children's involvement and appraised using a quality tool.
Main Results:
- Out of 96 selected studies, 87.5% focused on children, but only 8.3% involved children to some degree.
- No studies featured children as active research participants.
- Average quality score for the literature was 57%, indicating room for improvement.
Conclusions:
- There is a need to increase active child participation in dental trauma research.
- Specific areas within the literature require quality enhancement.
Background And Aim:
It is widely acknowledged that children should participate in healthcare decisions, service development and even setting research agendas. Dental traumatology is a major component of paediatric dentistry practice and research. However, little is known about young patients' contribution to new knowledge in this field. The aim of the study was to establish the extent to which children are involved in contemporary dental trauma research and to evaluate the quality of the related literature.
Material And Methods:
A systematic review of the dental trauma literature was conducted from 2006 to 2014. The electronic databases, MEDLINE and Scopus, were used to identify relevant studies. The selected papers were independently examined by five calibrated reviewers. Studies were categorized by the degree of children's involvement and appraised using a validated quality assessment tool.
Results:
The initial search yielded 4374 papers. After application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, only 96 studies remained. Research on children accounted for 87.5% of papers, and a proxy was involved in 4.2%. Children were engaged to some degree in only 8.3% of studies, and there were no studies where children were active research participants. In the quality assessment exercise, papers scored, on average, 57% (range = 14-86%).
Conclusion:
There is scope to encourage more active participation of children in dental trauma research in the future. Furthermore, there are some areas where the quality of research could be improved overall.
